Investing in Virginia

September 24, 2012

The Danville Register & Bee reports, "The [Danville] city government knew the two-lane "Smurf Bridge" needed to be replaced, but the politics in Richmond made that more and more unlikely. There simply wasn't enough road and bridge construction dollars coming out of Richmond anymore -- and the state's political leadership couldn't agree on a plan to fix the problem... But it was the federal government -- not the state government -- and President Barack Obama's much-maligned stimulus bill that got Danville the bridge it needed. Former Rep. Tom Perriello voted for the stimulus bill and lobbied former Gov. Tim Kaine to steer part of Virginia's share of the stimulus money to Danville. Danville's newest bridge may be named for George Wilmot Robertson, but without the efforts of Obama, Kaine and Perriello in 2009, there would be a traffic jam on the old two-lane Smurf Bridge today."

Progressive Point: Investing in our schools, cops, bridges, and medical research keeps Virginia's economy running and is a down payment on our future. The President's home front investments have helped put Virginia back to work. Projects like rebuilding our decaying bridges put money in the pockets of working Virginians and more customers in our stores.

Mitt Romney, Bob McDonnell, and their conservative allies want to cut home front investments to give the richest few even more special tax breaks. The President's investments in Virginia are working to strengthen our economy. While there's more work to do, there's no question that we're doing better today than we were four years ago. Our leaders in Virginia need to learn the value in investing our communities as well.

Get the Facts:

• "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act wound up providing $28.9 million of the $39.7 million" for Danville's Robertson Bridge project. (Danville Register & Bee, Sept. 23, 2012)


• Mitt Romney's economic plan would raise taxes 95% of Americans to pay for tax cuts for the top 5% and would add a new $247,000 tax cut for the wealthiest 0.1% on top of the Bush tax cuts. (ThinkProgress, August 1, 2012)


• The Rep. Ryan/House GOP budget that Mitt Romney has endorsed proposes $871 billion in cuts to investments. (Center for American Progress, March 20, 2012)


• Mitt Romney's economic plan would cut potentiall over ten billion dollors that goes to police officers, firefighters, and teachers based on an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (Washington Post, June 13, 2012)

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